M–55
Norristown, PennsylvaniaUnited States

sastum

F

1965 Chevrolet Corvair Monza

“Toni”

1964 Chevrolet Corvair Monza convertible

“Vixen”

Head to Head

About “Toni”

(DISCLAIMER - This is NOT a picture of the actual car, but it's damn close. I found it on the internet. Please ignore the 1962-63 style wire wheel covers... )

Here it is folks - The car that started it all for me. It happened like this: I was driving home from work one evening in my 1965 Chevy II 4-door ("Sonny"), when it came down with a terminal case of "Palsy Of The Linkages". First the column shifter locked up in second gear. Fortunately it could maintain an almost safe speed on the expressway I was accelerating onto at the time, since the next exit wasn't for another 8 miles. When I left the expressway and depressed the clutch, the pedal just dropped to the floor with the clutch still engaged. Fortunately, the light changed and I could keep rolling. I managed to plan ahead enough to not have to stop for several more miles until I came to an intersection with a lot of traffic. I lugged the engine down as far as it would go without stalling and managed to keep going... until I stepped back on the gas. That's when the throttle linkage decided to come unclipped. That was it. I'd had it. When I finally got home, I looked through the paper for a cheap car. Being a Chevy man I first looked at the Chevys. Well, everything was out of my price range... except for a couple of Corvairs a guy was selling about 15 miles away. I went to check them out the next day, a Saturday. Both were in decent shape for 15 year old used cars - it was the undeserved reputation of the Corvair that made the prices so low. I chose the '65 over the '66 he was also selling because 1) it had about 10,000 fewer miles, 2) had a 4-speed instead of the '66s 3-speed and 3) I liked the dark green of the '65 better than the light green of the '66.

About “Vixen”

Vixen and I first saw each other at Fairway Chevrolet here in town. It was love at first sight! I drooled over her for months. She wasn't for sale there on the lot, an employee owned her and drove her daily. On my birthday in 1997 my husband surprised me with the gift of Vixen, my 64 convertible!!!!! I was so thrilled to have her my first question was, "Does she run?" because it really, truly didn't matter to me. She was mine!!!! My twin sister helped me name her because she was here celebrating our birthdays on that joyous day. Since it was so close to Christmas, my Corvair got the name Vixen--after Santa's reindeer of the same name.

She needed some work, but she ran and I started driving her daily almost immediately. (We did fix the gas tank leak first.) A few dozen coats of Meguiars waxes had her gleaming like she didn't really need paint. Most of her trim pieces were in boxes in the trunk, but little by little I put her back together.

In 2000 and 2001 she got new paint and interior. In 2004 she got a motor rebuild.

I drive her everywhere with the top down year round!!!

Specs for “Toni”

164 c.i.d., horizontally-opposed air-cooled 6-cylinder engine. It was rebuilt about 5 years before I bought it with an eye toward bottom-end torque. The owner used the car to tow his twin sons quarter midget race cars.
4-speed fully synchronized transaxle
3.89:1 Limited-slip differential
Because of the low rear gear and the touquey engine, the car would jump off the line! I never had it down a dragstrip, but according to my wristwatch it would do 0-60 in about 8 seconds. The quarter mile was another story, since it was wound up tight in 4th gear by about 90 MPH!

Mods for “Vixen”

I made her my own when we did the paint and interior. She was Fawn in color from the factory, but was red with black interior when I got her. She has been Argent Silver since 2001. She has 61 NOS hubcabs. (Did you know that 61 Monza hubcabs have to have 61 wheels? I didn't either until I was putting her back together.) She has 60 tail lights, 62 dash and grill. I just took all the parts and pieces I thought were prettiest and built my own little car. She also has a custom made pair of fuzzy dice made by my lovely twin sister!